USA > Ohio > Cuyahoga County > Cleveland > Centennial history of Cleveland > Part 2
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to the city. There was then four frame houses in Cleaveland. The house where the ball was held was not a frame house, it was of hewed logs, two stories high and sided upon the outside and lath and plaster on the inside, but it was a very good room for a new country. It belonged to Major Carter. We staid all night and started in the morning." Mr. Woods states that when about a quarter of a mile within the six miles wood the wagon broke down. Two of the young men took a horse each, and with the harnesses still on they mounted with a girl behind them- the three girls taking turns at riding- and so proceeded homeward.
Early in the years 1809 or 1810 the mail was carried over the long route of post-towns by Gairns Burke, a lad of 14, and his brother, their father having taken the contract. Mr. Burke states that the route was from Cleaveland through Hudson, Stow, Ravenna, Deerfield, Warren, Messopotamia, Winsor, Jefferson, Austinburg, Harpersfield, Painesville, back to Cleaveland, over a road full of underbrush and from 15 to 20 miles without a cabin or building of any sort. The rivers and streams were without bridges. In summer and in favorable weather they went on horseback. At other times they made the trip afoot, going once a week for three successive years. This could have been no pleasant trip for the brothers, as the woods were then full of wild animals.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Amzi Atwater, one of the first surveying party, closes his journal with "a short account of the Beasts, Birds, Reptiles and Insects found in New Connecticut," from which I quote a few sentences : "There are Ells plenty in some parts of the purchase. Deer are pretty plenty towards the south side of the country, but they are a great part of them destroyed by the Wolves. They are a creature that are very plenty in this country. Bears are very plenty towards the South part of the country. There appears to be Beaver and Muskrats in some places. Racoons are very plenty about the lake. One or two panthers were seen on this country. Squirrels are very plenty on all parts of the Country; they are both black and gray. I saw one rabbit which was the onderly one that I either saw or heard of. Hedge- hogs are most remarkable creatures that I took notice of during the time that I staie in the coun- try. A large hedgehog will weigh about 20 pounds. His body is very short and thick, (here follows a very quaint drawing of the creature, showing that the surveyor was not an artist), his head and nose round, his ears short and round, his legs short, his toes and claws are very long, his tail is about six inches long and very thick toward the rump but gradually lessens toward the end. This animal is very curiously armed with quills that are hard and hollow. They are about 22 inches in length in the back and sides, but much shorter on the head and tail.
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"In the woods are plenty of Turkies, some Patt- ridges, and Quails and a plenty of Pidgions. Owls are very plenty in all parts of the country."
* * *
Mr. Atwater states that he found "eagles on the lake shore," and that "the flesh of rattle- snakes, if it can be eaten without prejudice, is extraordinary good food. It is white and tender like fish."
Among the large collection of wolf papers still extant are the following certificates :
"Cleaveland, March 2d, 1815.
Personally appeared Alonzo Carter of Cleave- land in said county before me and pro- duced the scalp of a full grown wolf and being sworn according to Law is entitled to the sum of four Dollars bounty from the State.
Horace Perry, Jus. Peace.
State of Ohio, Cuyahoga County."
"This certifies that Lorenzo Nalley has pro- duced to me the scalp of a wild wolf over the age of six months proven according to Law for which he is entitled to receive from the State of Ohio the sum of $4.00 as per act of the Leg.
Theodore Miles, J. P. Newburgh, April 8, 1819."
These speak for themselves.
At the close of the year 1811-spring of 1812-
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
the town was settled as follows, according to a written statement still extant:
"I will begin North of Kingsbury's creek, on what is now Broadway. The first was Maj. Sam- uel Jones on the hill near the turn of the road; farther down came Judge John Walworth, then postmaster, and his oldest son, Ashbel W. Wal- worth, and son-in-law Dr. David Long. Then on the corner of where the Forest City House now stands was a Mr. Moreys. The next was near the now American House, where the little Post- office building then stood, and Mr. Hanchet, who had just started a little store. Close by was a tavern kept by Mr. George Wallace. Then on the top of the hill, North of Main Street, was Lor- enzo Carter and son, Alonzo, who kept Tavern also. The only house below, on Water Street and Superior Street, was Nathan Perry's store, likewise his brother, Horace Perry, who lived near by. Levi Johnson began in Cleaveland about that time, likewise two brothers of his came soon after, Benjamin, a one-legged man, I think the other's name was John. The first and last was lake Capt. for a time. Abram Hicox, the old blacksmith, Alfred Kelley, Esq., who boarded with Esq. Walworth at this time. Then Mr. Bailey, also Elias and Harvey Murray, and per- haps a very few others in town, not named. Then on now Euclid Avenue from Monumental Square through the Wood to East Cleveland was but one
THE KINGSBURY HOMESTEAD.
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man, who lived in a small shanty with a trifle of a clearing around him, and near the now Euclid Station, Nathan Chapman, who after died there. Then at what was called Doan Corners lived two families only, Nathaniel, the older, and Major Seth Doan. Then on the South, now Woodland Hills Avenue, we first came to Richard Blinn, Rhodolphus Edwards, and Mr. Stephens (a school teacher), Mr. Honey, James Kingsbury, David Burras, Eben Hosmer, John Wightman, Wm. W. Williams and three sons, Frederick, Wm. W. and Joseph; next on (now Carter pl.) Philamon Baldwin and sons; Philamon, Amos, Caleb and Runa; next, James Hamilton, then Samuel Hamilton (who was drowned on the lake a little before), his widow and three sons, Chester, Preston, Samuel, Jr. At then, or rather since, called Newburgh, and now Cleveland, five by the name of Miles; Erasmus, Theodore, Samuel, Thompson and David. Widow White with five sons, John, William, Solomon, Samuel and Simon; Mr. Barnes, Henry Edwards, Allen Gay- lord, father and mother. Spring of 1812 came Noble Bates, Ephraim and Jedidiah Hubbel with their old father and mother (the two latter died soon), in both families several sons; Stephen Gilbert, Silvester Burke with six sons, Abner Cochran; now on what is called Aetna Street, Esq. Samuel S. Baldwin was sheriff and county surveyor, and also hung the noted Indian, John
-
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O. Mic, in 1812; next Y. L. Morgan; then three sons, Y. L., Jr., Caleb, J. A. Morgan; the next, now Broadway Avenue, Dyer Sherman, Christopher Gunn, Elijah Gunn, Charles and Elijah Jr. Gunn-
The manuscript comes to a sudden close, but probably completes the circuit of roads on which stood the log-cabins and the three or four frame houses of the residents of Cleveland, for when the war of 1812 broke out there were but "67 white families living on the 12 mile Square Re- serve," and the population of Cleveland was little over 57 souls.
A library association was formed in 1811, hav- ing 16 members, constituting one-fourth of the entire population. The librarian's book for 1811- 1812 contains the names of the most prominent families of the village. From it we learn that in July, 1811, Lorenzo Carter took out "Goldsmith's Greece," and "Don Quixote," and that he re- tained them until he had a fine of $1 to pay on each.
Under the same date James Kingsbury took out "Lives of the English Poets," "History of Rome," "Art and Nature," and one other, the name of which is not to be discerned at this late day. These facts are of interest, as showing the line of reading selected by two of Cleveland's most prominent men of those times.
During the war of 1812, and the campaigns
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following it, Cleveland was an important military headquarter, and as many of the little band of settlers served in the militia fresh anxieties were added to those constantly endured by these fam- ilies.
At the time of Hull's surrender a scout entered the town reporting a large body of English and Indians to be coming down the lake, and for a while the wildest excitement prevailed. Many of the families seized what few valuables they could carry with them-burying others-and on horseback or afoot made their way inland, seek- ing a place of safety.
Three fearless women, Mrs. John Walworth, her daughter, Mrs. Dr. Long, and Mrs. Wallace, refused to leave their homes.
Mrs. Walworth was the same intrepid woman who made the journey from Cleveland to Led- yard, Ct., in the year 1807 alone, on horseback. She was about 37 years of age and made the journey through the wilderness in safety, and it is stated her horse suffered so little from fatigue that it ran away the next morning, when her 11- year-old brother attempted riding it to water.
A gentleman, who was very ill at the time Hull's surrender, was carried on a feather bed that was strapped over a horse's back, through the woods from Newburgh to Doan Corners. He stood the journey far better than the feather bed did, for that was torn to shreds by the bushes, and the feathers given to the wind.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
The few settlers at Doan Corners proceeded to the settlement at Euclid, a few miles further east, where they arrived in a state of great consterna- tion. Mr. Colman, of Euclid, remarked, "Now I think, neighbors, there's no danger. You all stay here and I'll go into Cleveland and see what the fuss is." Leaving his sick wife and their new-born infant in care of these friends, he pro- ceeded with all possible speed to the village. The firing on the island could be distinctly heard, and the group of settlers decided to move on toward Willoughby. One man remained to protect Mrs. Colman, while the rest pushed on. The people experienced a night of terrible fear and suspense from what proved to be a false alarm. At the close of the war there was a general jollification in town. The people gathered on the Square, and with plenty of whiskey and no care for anything but to give vent to their joy, they had a wild, hilarious time. The blacksmith, Uncle Abram Hicox, was loading up an old gun by throwing the powder in from a pail by the handful, when a spark from a fire-brand, prepared to touch it off, fell into the pail, sending the impromptu gunner off instead. He was thrown high intc the air, receiving scars that lasted him for life, losing most of his clothing, but not his life.
In May, 1813, Capt. Stanton Sholes and his company arrived by order of the War Depart- ment. There were several companies already
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in town prepared to defend it, and to establish a military post. Capt. Sholes has recorded that on his arrival Gov. Meigs took him to a place where his company could pitch their tents. He then proceeds thus: "I found no place of defense, no hospital, and a forest of large timber (mostly chestnut) between the lake and the lake road. There was a road that turned off between Mr. Perry's and Maj. Carter's that went to the point, which was the only place that the lake could be seen from the buildings." He also informs us that, "At my arrival I found a number of sick and wounded who were of Hull's surrender, sent here from Detroit, and more coming. These were crowded into a log-cabin, and no one to take care of them, as they had no friends. I had two or three good carpenters in my company and set them to work to build a hospital. I very soon got up a good one, thirty by twenty feet, smoothly and tightly covered, and floored with chestnut bark, with two tiers of bunks around the walls, with doors and windows and not a nail, a screw, or iron latch or hinge about the building. Its cost to the government was a few extra rations. In a short time I had all the bunks well-strawed, and clean, to their great joy and comfort, but some had fallen asleep."
The fact of this hospital costing the govern- ment nothing more than a few extra rations is quite as curious as that it was built without nails or screws.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
Capt. Sholes then erected a small fort about 150 feet from the bank of the lake, in the forest, with a breast-work of logs and brush. The Brit- ish fleet approached to destroy the station and the government boats building in the river, but were driven back by a severe storm.
Notwithstanding the troubled times along the lake frontier, Cleveland continued to thrive. The village was incorporated December 23d, 1814, with Alfred Kelley for its first president, and Alonzo Carter its treasurer. The Pier Company soon after built a landing at the lake, and in 1818 the magnificent steamer Walk-in-the-Water en- tered the harbor of Cleveland bound from Buffalo to Detroit. She was 300 tons burthen, with 100 cabin and greater steerage accommodations, and a sailing power of 8-10 miles an hour.
The mouth of the Cuyahoga had been made a port of entry as early as 1805, and the postmaster served as the Collector of Customs. If his cus- tom receipts equalled his post office receipts at that time his duties could not have been bur- densome, for it is recorded that for the first quar- ter of the year 1806 they amounted to $2.83.
It has been said that the pioneers of the West- ern Reserve came with a school in one pocket and a church in another. If so, they were a long while in emptying their pockets, for the school- house did not appear in Cleveland village until the year 1817, when one was begun on St. Clair
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Street, east of the present Kennard House, which was finished in 1821. It became known as the "Old Academy." This first school was free to children whose parents could not assist in its support.
1928776
In Lorenzo Carter's "Legor," a ponderous vol- ume which has its first entry on December 18, 1808, and contains the record of several years, I find that in 1814 he "paid F. Williams for school- ing $3.75" for Mary's tuition, but for how long a term is not stated. There are frequent entries for the tuition of Mary and Betsy.
The pioneers did, indeed, take a thought for what they considered to be their spiritual welfare, erecting a distillery as early as 1800, but religious interests were not awakened until a later day.
The Rev. Joseph Badger delivered a sermon in 1800, but he found very little to encourage him here. Mr. Badger was an itinerant preacher, and in later years made occasional rounds of the new settlements. Gradually the interest in- creased, and through the efforts of some of the women regular services were held in the houses, and occasionally a preacher would come. In the "Legor" of Major Carter, from which I have quoted, are several entries of "Paid to Priest- for preaching, $1.00."
A church was erected in 1817 in Euclid, which has recently been taken down to give place to a modern structure. This was the first church,
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
and served for all sects. On the 9th of Novem- ber, 1816, Trinity Parish was organized in Cleve- land. In 1820 a few people formed a society and engaged the Rev. Randolph Stone, of Ashtabula County, to devote one-third of his time to preach- ing in Cleveland. Both of these societies met in private houses, and from 1820-1822 Trinity Par- ish was in Brooklyn, where the greater number of its members resided.
On Friday, the 31st of July, 1818, there ap- peared the first number of the first newspaper published here. It was entitled "The Cleaveland Gazette and Commercial Register," with this sen- timent, "Where Liberty Dwells, there is My Country" as a heading to the first page of four columns.
It was edited by Mr. A. Logan, and appeared weekly, or in 10,12 or 15 days, as suited the editor. There were four pages, the first having a strangely familiar aspect to a reader of today, for in its second column appears the well-known heading of "Shocking Murder," followed by that equally familiar one of "The Sea-Serpent Again." Some- where off the coast of Maine, where the serpent seems to have been sporting ever since, appear- ing periodically to astonished seamen. Among the anecdotes, the spice required to tempt the dainty readers, occurs the following one:
"An Irishman was lately brought before a jus- tice, charged with marrying six wives. The
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Magistrate asked him how he could be so hard- ened a villain? 'Please, your worship,' says Paddy, 'I was trying to-to get a good one.' "
During the year following there appeared "The Cleaveland Herald," published at Cleaveland, Ohio, Tuesday, October 19, 1819, by Z. Willes & Co., directly opposite the Commercial Coffee House, Superior Street." Most of the articles in these early newspapers are selections from Eng- lish magazines, and from back numbers at that. In the first number of the Herald is the latest news from England, received by letter from New York under date of September 20, reporting the arrival "of Schooner Athens in the very short passage of 28 days from Cork," bringing accounts of the riot at Manchester on August 6th.
A later paper (May 23, 1820) contains an inter- esting letter written at St. Helena, stating that "Bonaparte, (who was in good health) sometimes rides out, but seems extremely desirous to shun observation.
"The restrictions are unrelaxed,"
"Every avenue being guarded, the heights being crowned with guns," etc., which shows that the conqueror was fairly conquered.
The first notice of any theatrical performance that I have found occurs in the Herald of May 23, 1820, and shows that advertising rates were lower than at present, for it is very wordy. It goes on to state that "Mr. W. Blanchard most re-
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
spectfully informs the Ladies and Gentlemen that this evening, May 23d, At Mr. P. Mowry's Hall, there will be presented the much-admired Comic Opera, called The Purse, or the Benevolent Tar. After which, a variety of Sentimental and Comic Songs; with An interesting scene from the Drama of The Stranger, together with the Farce of the Village Lawyer, the whole to conclude with the Dwarf Dance.
"The doors will be open at 7, and the perform- ance to commence at 8 o'clock. Admittance 50 cents. Children half price.
"There will be another performance Tomorrow evening, the 24th inst."
In the issue of May 31, Mr. Blanchard, "Feel- ing himself indebted to the citizens of Cleave- land," etc., "returns them his sincere thanks," and "begs leave to inform them that he will offer, for their satisfaction and amusement, on Wednes- day eve, May 31st, the entire Play of the Mountaineers, with songs, duets," etc. The duet of "Blue Eyed Mary" was among the at- tractions offered.
As we close this brief and necessarily incom- plete account of the first quarter of a century of the history of Cleaveland, the period of settling, we find the township which, in 1800, embraced the towns of Cleaveland, Chester, Russell, Bain- bridge (Geauga Co.), and all of the present Cuy- ahoga County east of the river, together with all
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the Indian country to the western line of the Re- serve, to have greatly decreased in its limits, as counties were formed and towns established.
Newburgh and Euclid had been set apart as separate towns. Many of the settlers of blessed memory had finished their work on earth and been laid to rest. Among these was Major Lorenzo Carter, who died February 7, 1814, in his 47th year. His son Alonzo had already become somewhat prominent in the affairs of the town, and in later years closely identified himself with its interests.
It was yet hard times with these settlers, al- though pioneer dangers, deprivations and doubts were fast giving way to settled homes, greater comforts and firm faith in the great city of the future-the Cleveland of today.
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
CHAPTER II.
1821-1846-THE PERIOD OF ESTABLISHING.
A N elderly lady once told me of her home at the beginning of the period we are about to consider, which may be called the period of establishing. Her husband's farm joined that of Judge Kingsbury's, but it was more than ten years before she had traveled over the entire length of the boundary line, for there were 310 acres in all, with only occasional clearings. The log-house contained one room only, in which there were two beds. As this lady said: "I re- member one time I wanted to have some com- pany, so I cleaned out the fireplace and filled it in with green stuff, and then piled up stones out- side the house, where I built a fire and did the cooking. I hung up a curtain inside and made a guest's room, and had things very fine, as I thought.
"In those days we bought chair-frames and splint-bottomed them ourselves, and I have a few of our first chairs now.
"All the way from East Cleveland to the city were log-houses, and it looked real cheerful of an evening to see the light of the open fire through the chinks in the logs as we went past.
"We used to put on a pepperidge log four or five feet long for a back-log, and it would burn
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for a week. We generally went to bed early, for we had to be up early in the morning. I was up many a Monday morning and had my washing out before sunrise. When we did need to light up we had a saucer filled with lard, in which we put a button with a rag around it for a wick, just a square piece of cotton cloth with a cord wound around the ends, that gave some light, but it wasn't very safe carrying it about on account of spilling the hot grease. Some folks used tallow- dips, but we used the lard and rag."
This same lady, when a girl in her teens, had woven 400 yards of cotton cloth during one sum- mer, the thread being spun at a factory near her home in Connecticut.
In her new home, as in all the early homes here, the spinning wheel and loom held an im- portant place in the household economy. Wo- men were not troubled with lassitude, dyspepsia and kindred diseases then. Wives were true help-mates of their hard-working husbands. As an old pioneer once expressed it, women were help-meets instead of help-cats, and sons and daughters were taught to live active, useful lives.
The usual work of keeping the home tidy and comfortable, the spinning, weaving, sewing, cut- ting and making the family garments, tending the sheep, preparing the wool, and knitting the stockings for the usually large family of man and wife and ten or more children, gathering
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HISTORY OF CLEVELAND.
herbs for the winter's store of medicines, with frequent nights and days of nursing the sick in the neighborhood, the gathering in, paring and drying apples and pumpkins, the gathering of red clover for the year's supply of clover-tea, the daily beverage then, the making of lint, the filling of tinder-boxes, the dipping of tallow candles, the daily milking, churning and cheese making, to- gether with the manufacturing of various sup- plies now to be obtained of the corner grocer, such as yeast and yeast-cakes, saleratus, made of water in which the ashes of burned corn-cobs had been steeped, molasses and sugar from maple syrup, and innumerable articles of family con- sumption, left no waste moments.
Then the cooking was enough to appal a domestic of today! The preparing of meats and fowls, the baking of huge loaves of delicious pumpkin-bread, of Indian meal Johnny, or Journey-cake, of plum-cakes, of rich pies and pud- dings, of doughnuts and cymbals, cooked in bake-kettles, Dutch-ovens and skillets, in kettles swung on iron cranes, or on lug-poles of green wood, cooked over or before the blazing wood- fire, or in the coals on the hearth, in a manner unknown to the present generation.
Honor to those busy housewives! And yet busy as they always were they found time to em- broider the dainty cap for baby number ten, twelve, or even fourteen, and to put into the
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home-made linen such tiny stitches and such ex- quisite fagoting as puts to shame the very best of modern seamstresses. These women! these early settlers of the Western Reserve, deserve to be known as the Eighth wonder of the world.
My venerable friend also told me of attending a New Year's dance at Turney's house in 1826. Turney's was the first brick house erected in the county, and it was then a tavern of excellent rep- utation, kept by a Mr. Parshal. The young matron wore a white muslin skirt with a white satin bodice and sleeves. The skirt was trimmed with white ribbon, on which were hand-painted roses. Her feet were encased in blue-prunella slippers, so short that she remembered her dis- comfiture even unto her old age. The lady and her husband, then a gallant young couple, gath- ered up neighbors and friends as they drove along in their sleigh in the midst of a hard storm of sleet. One of the peculiar features of this dance was the marriage of a young couple at the head of a fig- ure. At the supper that followed the bride was asked what part of the chicken she would have, and she replied "a piece of the heart." It is to be hoped that her mate was not chicken-hearted.
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